There are so many serious topics that come up on the AITA sub that sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that not-so-serious topics can cause rifts in families, too.

Or at least, it’s amusing.

OP’s son was very excited to get his first pet. They did the research on hamsters, set up a place for one, and finally went to pick one out.

So to start this off, my son is 11 and has been begging for a “family pet” for a while. I finally gave in when I felt we were ready to take one on, and also when I felt he was ready for the responsibility that comes with one.

I expected a dog or cat, but he really wanted a hamster. So we spent a little over a week prepping, helping him “study” hamster care and dedicated a sizable spot in our living room for necessities and home.

He had planned on naming it Sonic, but after being told he’d chosen a girl, he immediately settled on Amy instead.

We finally get around to picking one out at the pet shop, he’s set on the name Sonic, but the lady ringing us up mentioned the one he picked out was a girl and that she could get him a boy if he wanted, and he just lit up and said “That’s Amy!” and that was that, we took Amy home.

This was in March.

Soon afterward they learned that OP’s brother and sister-in-law planned to give their coming daughter Amy as a middle name. OP made a comment about her sharing a name with the hamster.

My sister-in-law found out she was pregnant somewhere around that time, and last month they found out they were having a girl. Basically what happened was, they were picking out names and one of the names they narrowed it down to had Amy as the middle name.

I made a joke of something like “Hey, we already have an Amy at our house!” Trying to be funny, but SIL didn’t think it was.

I didn’t think much about it at the time, but a couple of days ago she asked to come by to talk.

The SIL did not think this was funny and said so. OP apologized for the comment, and even agreed to see if her son wanted to change the name after SIL asked her to.

She started off by saying the joke I made was in bad taste, I apologized for it, and then she suggested I change the name.

I told her I didn’t think that would go over well with my son, and then she outright demanded it be changed “whether he likes it or not” because she wasn’t going to have a child share the name with a hamster.

I agreed to talk it over with my son to see what he thought, and of course he didn’t want to, he even thought it was cool that his cousin would share her name with his hamster.

When her son did not want to change Amy the Hamster’s name, though, OP refused to force him.

I tried convincing him to rename her Sonic even, or some other Sonic character, but he didn’t want that. I explained how SIL feels about this, and he felt a bit hurt because he thought he upset SIL but he really didn’t want to change the name and didn’t understand why they couldn’t just share it.

I told SIL that my son was set on Amy, and she blew up. I’ll admit I got a bit defensive and reacted poorly, but I essentially told her it wasn’t a huge deal, it’s not like anyone is going to make the connection and by the time her child is old enough to know her name, Amy the Hamster likely won’t be around.

She claimed it was embarrassing because she would always know the connection in her mind, to which I simply told her if it was such a strong reminder of a hamster then maybe it wasn’t a name she should use for her daughter.

Her brother and sister-in-law think she’s a jerk, but is she?

My brother has told me that I am being selfish for not forcing my son to pick another name, SIL obviously thinks I’m TA, and my mom has said the whole thing is childish.

So AITA?

Let’s hear what Reddit has to say about it.

The first two commenters agree this is totally a non-issue.

This person wonders just how childish OP could make it if she wanted.

They say the kid is the most mature person in this scenario.

This comment says people cannot expect to own very common names.

And this person really doesn’t see what’s wrong with sharing a name with a pet, anyway.

I agree with OP’s mom. This whole thing is silly.

SIL really needs to get over herself.